Greece countries/gr.yaml
Under Law 4139/2013, using drugs or obtaining or possessing cannabis in a quantity that indicatesprocessing them for personal use is a misdemeanour punishable by up to, in quantities for one's own needs, carries at most five months in prison. In practice sentences are usually suspended or replaced by treatment[@euda_cdr18,n4139] The offence stays off the criminal record if no further relevant offence follows within five years, and courts can suspend the conviction is not enteredpenalty for offenders entering a recognised treatment programme.[@euda_cdr18] No fixed quantity defines personal use; the judge decides on the ordinary criminal recordsubstance, its quantity and purity, and the offender's needs.[@euda_cdr18] [Personal use became a minor offence in 2013.](/history/greece-law-4139-2013/)
nkeuda_cdr18, n4139
label Personal-use quantity (misdemeanour) · treatment civil · term Possession · prison 5 months · note Up to five months, usuallyUsually suspended or replaced by treatment; not entered onoff the ordinary record if no repeat within five years
Growing a number ofcannabis plants consistent within numbers and areas justified for personal use falls under the same personal-use misdemeanour, up toat most five months.[@euda_cdr18] Anything more is treatedcounts as production for trafficking.[@euda_cdr18] [Personal use became a minor offence in 2013.](/history/greece-law-4139-2013/)
nkeuda_cdr18
Prison is legally possible for users but rare in practice, with treatment alternatives and suspended sentences.[@euda_cdr18] Trafficking carries at least eight years, up to life in special cases.[@euda_cdr18] [Personal use became a minor offence in 2013.](/history/greece-law-4139-2013/)
nkeuda_cdr18
label Trafficking and production for trafficking · treatment criminal · prison min 8 years · note At least eight years
Supply is a felony. Addicted suppliers, withand those sharing within a reduced sentence wheregroup, face up to three years instead; dependent dealers who complete treatment can be conditionally released after a fifth of the supplier issentence.[@euda_cdr18] [Personal use became a dependent userminor offence in 2013.](/history/greece-law-4139-2013/)
nkeuda_cdr18
Use is covered by the same personal-use misdemeanour, at most five months, usually suspended or replaced by treatment.[@euda_cdr18] [Personal use became a minor offence in 2013.](/history/greece-law-4139-2013/)
nkeuda_cdr18
No adult-use source. Finished pharmaceutical cannabis became available on prescription in February 2024, following the 2017 rescheduling and 2018 production framework.[@launch2024,patient2024] [Patients first obtained prescriptions in February 2024.](/history/greece-prescriptions-2024/)
There is no legal recreational supply. Obtaining or possessing a personal-use quantity is a misdemeanour with up to five months, usually suspended or replaced by treatment and not entered on the ordinary record absent a repeat within five years; growing a personal-use number of plants falls under the same misdemeanour.[@nkeuda_cdr18] Anything more counts as production for trafficking, which carries at least eight years.[@nkeuda_cdr18] [Personal use became a minor offence in 2013.](/history/greece-law-4139-2013/)
nkeuda_cdr18
Greece issues licences for cultivation and processing of pharmaceutical cannabis, simplified by a 2021 law, aimed largely at export.[@mondaq,boc] [The state monopoly on selling medical cannabis products ended in 2021.](/history/greece-law-4801-2021/)
Prescription pharmaceutical cannabis products. Hemp foods, cosmetics and supplements within set THC limits are legal, and the hemp limit rose from 0.2% to 0.3% THC in May 2026.[@l5302] The same law prohibits retail sale, distribution, purchase and use by consumers of dried hemp flower, even at 0.3% THC or less; an industrial-processing exception remains.[@l5302,eof26] Prescribed pharmaceutical cannabis is regulated separately.[@mondaq] A July 2026 law banned smokable or vapable plant products with added cannabinoids.[@l5322] [Dried hemp flower sales to consumers were prohibited in May 2026.](/history/greece-hemp-flower-ban-2026/) [Smokable products with added cannabinoids were banned in July 2026.](/history/greece-sprayed-products-ban-2026/)
l5302, l5322, eof26, mondaq, boc
Medical cannabis was enabled in 2017 and production regulated in 2018.[@mondaq] Patients first obtained finished prescription products in February 2024; on 27 February the health minister met the first patient prescribed one.[@patient2024,launch2024] [Medical use became lawful in 2017.](/history/greece-medical-use-2017/) [Patients first obtained prescriptions in February 2024.](/history/greece-prescriptions-2024/)
patient2024, launch2024, mondaq
Personal-use convictions are kept off the standard criminal record, provided no further relevant offence follows within five years.[@euda_cdr18]
nkeuda_cdr18
The EU drugs agency's statistical bulletin records 12,399 cannabis-related drug law offences in Greece in 2024, against 10,124 in 2023.[@euda_dlo] Of the 2024 total, 8,359 were for use or possession for use.[@euda_dlo] Since 2018 the figure is the sum of offences for all cannabis products.[@euda_dlo] Countries count these differently (offences or offenders, criminal or administrative), so the figure is not comparable across borders.[@euda_dlo]
No club is confirmed. A Europe-wide survey of cannabis social clubs carried out in 2018 and 2019 received no answer from Greece but, because of contradictory sources, could not rule out that clubs were active there, and nothing more recent than that survey was found.[@pardal20] No law in Greece provides for them; Malta (since 2021) and Germany (since 2024) license non-profit cannabis associations, but only under their own laws. Nothing more recent was found[@mt_cap628,de_cang] [Malta legalised non-profit cannabis associations in 2021.](/history/malta-legalisation-2021/) [Germany licensed them in 2024.](/history/germany-cultivation-associations-2024/)
The drug law deals with seeds only inside its licensing regime for medical cannabis. Under … ing such seed or propagating material available to others, or exporting it, is prohibited.[@n4139] For everyone else, growing plants in a number that fits personal use is the same misdemeanour as possession.[@euda_cdr18] No provision or court ruling on unsown seeds kept by an individual was found. Hemp varieties under the THC limit follow separate rules with certified seed.[@n4139]
n4139, nkeuda_cdr18
Hemp foods, cosmetics and supplements within set THC limits are legal, and the hemp limit … ion.[@l5302] Hemp varieties under the limit follow separate certified-seed rules.[@n4139] [Dried hemp flower sales to consumers were prohibited in May 2026.](/history/greece-hemp-flower-ban-2026/)
There is no legal recreational supply for anyone. Under Law 4139/2013, obtaining or posses … our punishable by up to five months in prison, usually suspended or replaced by treatment.[@euda_cdr18] [Personal use became a minor offence in 2013.](/history/greece-law-4139-2013/)
nkeuda_cdr18
Road Traffic Code Law 5209/2025 article 46 prohibits driving under toxic-substance or medication influence.[@roadcode2025] Paragraph 8 sets at least two months' imprisonment, a criminal fine of at least EUR200 and mandatory court removal of the driving licence for three to six months.[@roadcode2025] These are drug provisions, not the EUR1,200 and 180-day alcohol schedule.[@roadcode2025] Police and port authorities may test drivers; a drug-test refusal creates the paragraph 6 presumption of drug influence.[@roadcode2025] Fatal accidents require blood sampling, with medically certified alternatives for surviving persons who cannot give blood.[@roadcode2025] Injury and ordinary roadside checks use scientifically appropriate methods.[@roadcode2025] Article 132(2)(e) made article 46 effective on publication, 13 June 2025, despite the code's general three-month commencement rule.[@roadcode2025] The ministry's November 2025 reply identifies the 2011 joint testing decision as applicable alongside article 46.[@drugtestingreply] No operative numerical THC cutoff, general prescription defence or complete repeat-offence schedule was verified in this pass; later procedural amendments require separate review.
The EU drugs agency's statistical bulletin records 5,216 kg of herbal cannabis and 218 kg of cannabis resin seized in Greece in 2024, against 6,116 kg and 349 kg in 2023.[@euda_szr] Herbal cannabis was seized on 9,447 occasions and resin on 904.[@euda_szr] Plant seizures came to 52,271 plants.[@euda_szr] Countries record seizures differently, so the figures are not comparable across borders.[@euda_szr]
EMCDDA — Greece Country Drug Report 2018 (PDF)
Cannabis Freedom Index — Rebetiko and the tekés (atlas)
Neos Kosmos — Hopes run high for marijuana law reform in Greece
15 unchanged
label Personal-use numbers and areas · treatment civil · term Cultivation · prison 5 months · note Judge decides what counts as personal use; suspended or replaced by treatment in practice, label Production for trafficking · treatment criminal · term Cultivation · prison min 8 years · note Amounts beyond personal use; fines and life terms in special cases (see supply)
EUR
label Trafficking and production for trafficking · treatment criminal · term Supply · prison min 8 years · note Up to life for offences by medical staff, teachers or therapists · fine min 50000 · fine 500000
Cannabis runs through Greece's urban music. [Rebetiko](/culture/traditions/rebetiko-and-the-tekes/), the bouzouki music of the early-twentieth-century urban poor, was born partly in the *tekés*, the hashish den, and its smoking songs (*hasiklidika*) named the habit plainly.[@rebetiko] Sung by the Asia Minor refugees who brought the cannabis habit with them after 1922, the songs were censored from 1937, when Metaxas closed every tekés in the country; the censorship was not formally revoked until 1981.[@rebetiko] From the late 1950s the old songs found a wide new public, and the hashish den with its water pipe lives on in that musical memory.[@rebetiko] [Refugees and soldiers from Asia Minor spread hashish in Greece in 1922.](/history/greece-asia-minor-refugees-1922/)
rebetiko